The Tale-Teller

“I’ve read it with great pleasure … the storytelling as salty and exhilirating as the seas over which Esther sails … The sense of what New France might have been like is so convincing … I love Esther because she never tries to pull at one’s heartstrings, and yet she does.”

—Helen Dunmore, winner of the Orange Prize for A Spell of Winter

The Tale-Teller is a marvel. Susan Glickman takes readers on a journey of discovery – starting with the fascinating true story of an obscure historical figure, and continuing through an intimate and richly-detailed portrait of Canadian colonial society, guided always by a map of wonders – to reveal timeless truths.

“As its title suggests, Susan Glickman’s The Tale-Teller … has a point to make about storytelling. However, in Glickman’s novel stories are not meant to preserve but to obscure, deflect, and disguise. Like many of the novels published in 2012, The Tale-Teller has its origins in history: Esther Brandeau, disguised as a boy, arrived in New France in 1768; when her true gender was discovered, she was held in custody for a year before being deported. Glickman imagines this boundary-crossing figure spending her year as a Scheherazade, eluding difficult questions by responding with stories that meet the real needs of her interrogators. (We recognize in Esther’s stories the traveller’s tales that were popular in the eighteenth century.) An engaging novel about the first Jew to arrive in Canada, The Tale-Teller creates a detailed portrait of the colony of New France as background for this fascinating character.”

—Russell Brown and Donna Bennett, The University of Toronto Quarterly

“The Tale-Teller is a novel both fascinated with the power of stories and aware of their limitations. As the period of Esther’s life illuminated by archival documents comes to an end, the historical woman and the fictional character slip beyond the reader’s view, the story’s control, and New France’s borders. The debris left by the stranger, in this case, is an awareness of Canada’s colonial history as a story not only of violent invasion but also of a failure to enact the ethics and politics of hospitality.”

—Hannah McGregor in Canadian Literature

“Like Scheherazade, Esther is a gifted storyteller, and during her year in captivity, her tales entrance those around her – first the servants in Hocquart’s household, and later the Quebec aristocracy. Esther’s stories span generations, cultures, and continents, crossing lines of gender, race, and socio-economic status. Her portrayals of subjects such as interracial marriage and cross-dressing seem scandalously radical to the conservative Christian inhabitants of New France. As her listeners begin to fall in love with the stories – which offer hope, adventure, and escape – they begin also to fall in love with the teller.

Somewhere along the way, the reader becomes enraptured with the mystery surrounding this girl and the stories she tells.”

—Katie Gowrie in Quill and Quire

“Reminscent of the apochryphal Esther, who disguised herself as a non-Jew to marry King Ahasueras of Persia, fictional Esther Brandeau says, ‘I did not run away from my faith. I ran away from the limitations that faith subjected me to.’ The numerous stories, imaginatively invented to fit each situation in which she finds herself, bring to mind the Talmudic tradition of midrash, tapping into legends and weaving nobler alternatives. In Esther’s quest, she discovers that although she may be the first young woman who came to New France disguised as a boy, she is certainly not the first of New France’s anusim.

Glickman is also an established poet, and earlier this year she released her sixth book of poetry, The Smooth Yarrow. Like Margaret Atwood, Glickman’s intelligence and superior narrative abilities have enabled her to transition skilfully from one genre to the other, and she is at the top of her game in both.”

—Sharon Abron Drache in The National Post

“It’s in the details of daily life in New France, juxtaposed with the Arabian Nights impulse in Esther’s talk, that creates such a fine tension in this book. She opens the horizons of the world with her stories, tempting some of the more staid residents to imagine other possibilities for themselves. And when her judgment comes, she accepts it and moves forward, letting the past few months drop away. She creates her own past and in doing so, creates her own present. Esther is a slippery character; the reader is never quite sure their grasp on her is firm. She is fascinating, and doubly so once you read the historical document included in the afterword which mentions this strange arrival.”

—The Indextrious Reader: Notes & Quotes from a Literary Librarian

“Not only does author Susan Glickman illuminate the beauty of New France in the 18th century, but she takes us all over the world through the delightful musing of a female hero you cannot help but love. My only complaint would be that I wanted it to last longer. At just over 200 pages, The Tale-Teller is a rather quick read, which leaves some details skimmed over in favour of others and I’m a greedy reader when it comes to historical fiction.”

—Alessandra Ferreri on traveltowellness.com

“Susan gives Esther the most critical characteristic of survival in the face of adversity – storytelling. When interrogated, Esther relates magnificent stories of an outlandish experience that inspires her listeners that they can also believe of a world unfettered by limitations. Slowly, Esther inspires those who are also suppressed within her vicinities to take stands for their own existences. Finally, a narrative that breathes air into Esther’s lungs and gives her a vocabulary as rich and inspiring as the memory of the historical figure herself.”

—Sara Hailstone on her blog

“This book makes you work for the truth, which is in some ways simply as Esther puts it: ‘I did not run away from my faith. I ran away from the limitations that faith subjected me to.’”

—ottawapubliclibrarian.blogspot

“Glickman blends Brandeau’s story with colorful fiction into a rather fascinating tale of early Canadian life and seafaring adventures in the days of European colonization.”

—Steve Spriensma in The Bay Observer

“The Tale-Teller is a precious novel, a piece of literary perfection that is almost too good to be true. How … such novels can be overlooked by three juries is part of a puzzle that I will never figure out.”

—Andrew Armitage in the Owen Sound Sun-Times

“Based on a historical character, Glickman’s Esther Brandeau is a master storyteller, mesmerizing her audiences with sounds, tastes and visions of the countries and adventures she relates. Her stories, always relevant to her specific predicament of the moment, are a pleasurable injection to the rather grim painting of the colony and its inhabitants and governors. A strong sense of place is established by Glickman’s poetic writing.”

—Gail de Vos

“An appealing confection, a colourful historical adventure-fantasy and a skilful imagining of the inhabitants of New France in its early period before 1759.”

—Bill Gladstone, Canadian Jewish News

« Susan Glickman hypnotise complètement les lecteurs avec sa plume généreuse, précise, où les surprises et les événementsinattendus se pointent un peu partout. »

—Marie-France Bornais in Le Journal de Québec

« Un délicieux petit roman, une ribambelle de contes fabuleux auxquels on veut croire plus qu’à la vérité. »

—Ariane Hivert – Les Méconnus

« Il y a plusieurs pistes dans ce roman-là. D’abord, il y a l’aventure et le féminisme, le désir de liberté. C’est véritablement un hommage à la femme. »

—Patricia Powers, Chez nous le matin / Radio-Canada

« Mélangez l’univers de la Nouvelle-France à celui des Mille et une nuits et vous obtiendrez l’un des romans les plus plaisants de la rentrée hivernale. […] Basé sur un fait historique pour le moins intriguant, le récit s’autorise une profusion de fantaisie en imbriquant à la trame québécoise les histoires abracadabrantes d’une fabulatrice hors-pair. »

—Thomas, Libraire Gallimard

« La force de l’ouvrage de Susan Glickman se trouve sans doute dans la richesse des thèmes qui, malgré leur inscription historique dans le récit, sont encore très actuels. Entre autres, la notion d’inégalités entre les genres, les races et les religions, mais aussi cette pulsion paradoxale qu’a l’être humain à vouloir se définir en tant qu’être authentique et libre, mais qui ne peut réellement y arriver qu’à travers le regard et l’approbation d’autrui. À moins, comme l’héroïne, de tendre vers cette liberté à travers les avenues de l’imaginaire. »

—Alexandra Gendron-Deslandes

« Sur la couverture, un bateau à voiles, flottant non pas sur la mer, mais au-dessus d’une mer d’ombres ou de nuages sombres. Le navire est retenu par des amarres tendues à l’extrême, prêtes à céder. Vers quelles contrées ce récit nous emmènera-t-il? Celles de l’imaginaire et de la liberté, Québec en Nouvelle-France n’est que le port d’attache où l’on revient inéluctablement et à contrecoeur.

Esther Brandeau, moussaillon, déguisée en garçon, est l’héroïne de ses propres histoires, aventures étranges et surprenantes, comme l’indique le titre. Le lecteur, comme les gens de Québec, se laisse prendre par les récits incroyables de la jeune femme …

Au final, lorsque tout est dévoilé, la décevante réalité nous pousse à imaginer que l’aventure continue. »

—Ariane Hivert in La Bible Urbaine

« Susan Glickman n’est pas une historienne. « Pas avec un grand H, en tout cas! » Mais l’auteure née à Montréal – elle a quitté la ville à 17 ans –, qui est aussi poète et professeure, a fait un an de recherches avant d’entamer la rédaction de ce roman au titre interminable, Les aventures étranges et surprenantes d’Esther Brandeau, moussaillon.

Je suis d’abord une romancière, nous a dit Susan Glickman lors d’un passage à Montréal. Mais je crois que lorsqu’on invente, il faut une base très réaliste.

Tout le roman est donc basé sur des faits, que ce soit sur la manière espagnole de préparer le chocolat ou sur la présence de personnages historiques, comme le gouverneur général Charles Beauharnois, le commissaire de la marine Jean-Victor Varin et l’intendant Gilles Hockart, aux quels l’auteure réussit à donner vie avec brio. »

—Josée Lapointe in La Presse

« Le plus récent livre de l’auteure, poète et critique torontoise Susan Glickman lève le voile sur un pan peu connu de l’histoire du Québec, soit la place des Juifs à l’époque de la conquête. »

—Entrevue avec Marie-Louise Arsenault, Plus on est de fous plus on lit / Radio-Canada

Toronto: Cormorant Books, 2012 [out of print]

appeared in French translation by Christian Duchesne as Les aventures étranges et surprenantes d’Esther Brandeau: Roman (Montreal: Boréal, 2014)